Thedas' Tiniest Heroes
by KieraVenic
Summary: Had Ellion Mahariel realized that his lover had grown so bored he would have made a greater effort to occupy a certain Antivan. As it was, at the least Leliana would adore Zevran's newest hobby. That was... if she did not kill him first.


**A/N:** A semi (not really) sequel to "Vanish One by One". Unlike Vanish, however, this story is full of fluff and silly. So there you go. Again, part of the AU for my Warden. This does not follow his canon plot.

* * *

"Tell me you didn't. Please… Please tell me you did not do what I think you did."

On the bed, the world's tiniest bard squeaked.

Obscenely proud of himself, Zevran stood beside the Warden Commander, grinning down at his handy work. His arms were crossed to keep his excited fidgeting to a minimum, but he still rocked and bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Oh come now, they look stunning. What do you think?"

"I think she's going to kill you," Ellion Mahariel sighed out. "You painted on one…"

"Nonsense!" Zevran cried cheerfully. From the bed, he picked up a tiny Warden. "He looks spectacular. She will love it. And I painted on two, to be precise."

"If she punctures you full of arrows I am not getting in the way."

The pout his lover gave him was met with crossed arms and a quirked brow. He would not be swayed into getting between Leliana and her babies. So far as he was concerned, his bonded was either already dead, or about to become the Bard's most beloved friend. Ellion was still on the fence as to which was more likely.

The small Warden was held out for inspection and wiggled gently at Ellion's face. "He looks just like you!"

Flatly, Ellion stared at Zevran. "Yes, because the Humans constantly calling me a rabbit was not bad enough." Face in his hands, he shook his head. "Might as well get this over with. She will notice that they're gone sooner rather than later and I fear for your health more if she notices before you can tell her what you did."

"Here, you carry mini you, and I'll carry the dashing Zevran Jr and the newest addition, Leliana the Second."

Looking down at the tiny being in his arms, Ellion secretly had to admit that his bonded had out done himself with this commission. The tiny Warden's outfit was perfect, right down to the griffon heraldry, even if his "armor" was mostly leather and cloth; layered, embroidered, and patterned to look like mail in places.

"I must say, I was dubious of her taste at first, but this brown one is rather charming." Said 'brown one' expressed her glee for Zevran's compliment by proceeding to chew on the string of the tiny bow strapped to her back. The Antivan tsked.

"That is hardly appropriate behavior for a Bard, Leliana the Second. Your mother would be disappointed."

"Are you emotionally scarring her children?" Ellion teased. Subconsciously he had shifted the tiny 'Warden' in his arms tighter against him as a little nose nuzzled at his shoulder.

"Harm a child? You insult me, mi amor. I may be wicked in many ways, but I would do no such thing."

"Ah, my apologies then. You just let them mug you."

"You're never going to forget that story, are you?"

"Not a chance," the Commander said with a grin.

It was not overly difficult to find their way to where Leliana was. The three tiny heroes garnered strange looks, laughter, and coos alike. At the sight of them, the Inquisitor's companion, Dorian, was more than happy to point the way. The Tevinter grinned.

"Now that, even I have to admit is rather adorable. They are stylish for such little things. They have impeccable taste."

Lip quirked, Ellion ruefully shook his head. "Do not encourage him. You might find the Inquisition's horses dressed up to look like your gang of compatriots."

Zevran shuffled the little bodies in his arms enough to rub his chin. "Now that _is_ an idea…"

"Don't you dare!" Ellion growled and kicked the other's boot. "I can't imagine what these cost."

Dramatically, Zevran staggered as though wounded by the 'cruel' words. "A little faith, mi amor! The armor for our little nephews and new niece—"

"… Niece and nephews… are you seriou—"

"—were kindly funded for by the Crows! They were only happy to part with the money."

Ellion scoffed. "Oh yes, quite happy, I'm sure. After you poisoned them or stuck a dagger between their ribs."

"What can I say? My hand slipped; A tragic accident, really."

Tragic accident, indeed…

"Careful, Warden Commander," Dorian broke in with a teasing tone and glint in his eyes. "If you deny them as your nephews and niece I am afraid our Spy Master might take offense. She can be quite scary when angry."

The Dalish shivered. "Oh trust me, I'm well aware."

A side of Leliana that he would rather not see. And here Zevran was trying to tempt it out full force. Here was hoping that she would not panic over a little paint. He sincerely hoped that it was not toxic or that the little one's sensitive skin would not take a rash. He glanced worriedly at Zevran Jr, taking in the tiny black tattoos.

…Really hoped that their 'nephews' would not rash.

Leaning against a nearby bookshelf with a smirk, Dorian nodded towards the dressed up trio in the Elves' arms. "Well, their loving mother is in Lady Montilyet's study with the Commander and the Inquisitor."

A blessing and a curse. Ellion spun on his heels and made for the doorway out to the balcony over the main hall. "Oh, well I guess their busy. Seems like we'll have to die another day."

Undeterred, Zevran scoffed and gripped the collar of his lover's leather brigandine. "Onward!"

Only half willing, Ellion allowed himself to be drug along. At the doorway to Josephine's study, Ellion found Zevran Jr plopped into his arms.

"Lady's first, of course."

It was apparent that his bonded was having far too much fun. Ellion dipped his head behind the pair of curious on lookers in his arms to hide his laugh, unsuccessfully. With a wink to Ellion, Zevran carefully draped the edge of his black half cape over the little one in his arm and dramatically threw open the door. Inside, five heads snapped up in varying arrays of confusion, curiosity, and disgruntlement.

"Leliana, my dear, I come bearing a gift!"

From the doorway, half hidden behind the frame to hide his own armful, Ellion watched at the red head perked up.

"Oh! A gift!"

In an instant the woman had gone from stern and fearsome to bouncing. Her hands clasped together over her sternum, balance rocking up on the balls of her feet as she gleefully watched the Antivan. "You shouldn't have, Zevran."

"Not bring something for a dear friend and a lady as lovely as yourself? I could never. That would be a most terrible faux paus."

Smiling coyly, Josephine shook her head at her fellow Antivan. "And not bring gifts for anyone else? That surely is a more grievous offense than bringing none at all."

"Ah, you will have to look to my love for that one. He handled the rest. I had my hands quite full with this little project."

"Only fair," Ellion called from the doorway, "Seeing as I may have stabbed your table the last time I was here…"

"The table had it coming," Leliana stated distractedly. Eager, she took several steps forward, smiling broadly down at the lump in Zevran's arms. "Oh come on, let us see it!"

"Oh, well, if you are not interested, I can understand," Zevran sighed out in dramatics. He started to turn away and the Bard caught him with a laugh.

"Zevran! You're such a tease! You never change. What is—Oh!"

In his arms, said lump shifted. The black fabric of Zevran's half cape rose and fell with snuffling breaths. Surprised, Leliana glanced down at the lump and then back to the rogue, her eyes shining hopefully. The curl of her lips and the way her cheeks rose, eye lids crinkling, told that she already had her suspicious.

"If you insist." With that, Zevran threw off the cape. "Meet, Leliana the Second."

Both Cullen and Inquisitor Lavellan winced at the squeal that escaped the red head. Despite her glee, her care was obvious as she gently took a small fuzzy brown nug into her arms. "Oh she is adorable! Absolutely precious! Ooooh! I've always wanted one of the furry ones since the Inquisitor told me about them in the Emerald Graves!"

Over her shoulder, Josephine peered inquisitively. Immediately she cooed. "How sweet! She even has a little outfit just like you!" The diplomat came around to gently run her hand down the carefully patterned silver and purple outfit. "Look Leliana! She even has little wooden daggers! And a bow!"

"Sadly, Leliana the Second nibbled through her bow string. She has a long way yet before she is ready to be a Bard, I am afraid."

"I don't know how to—Oh this is so wonderful! Thank you!" Nug in one hand, Leliana practically threw herself at Zevran, pulling the far from unwilling man into an embrace.

Less enthused than her companions, Cassandra wandered over to see what the fuss was about. Her eyebrows shot up at the sight of a tiny nug, hardly more than a baby, dressed identically to her companion. "You truly paid for someone to craft a set of armor… for a nug?"

"Half leather, half sweater. I have heard from our lovely red head here that sometimes my dear nephews get cold."

"Nephews…" It was not obvious if Cassandra was amused or harassed. From the door, Ellion was of a mind that the poor woman had simply given up fighting the ridiculous antics of her companions. And now the Warden had subjected her to the force of nature that was Zevran. He almost felt pity. Almost.

"Indeed! Ah, which reminds me, there is more to your gift.

Incredulously, but hardly unhappy, Leliana stepped back with a quiet laugh and a shake of her head. "More? Zevran, you've out done yourself. Are you bored? I take it you have not had much trouble with the Crows of late if you've had the time for all of this."

"Alas, it seems they've begun to weary of our game. Their seventh—"

"Ninth," Ellion corrected.

"Ninth?" Zevran glanced back, confirming. "Truly? I am ashamed to have forgotten such brave souls." The well hidden sarcasm beneath his jovial tone was not believed. The assassin cleared his throat. "Ninth, then. Their ninth guild master has requested a meeting for a truce, perhaps. Whether or not it is another trap like the last three remains to be seen."

Further back, Cullen shifted uncomfortably. "You sound… rather excited about the idea."

Tossing his head back, Zevran laughed. "Excited? Of course not!"

"… Right…"

"But enough talk of such things." The former Crow turned to motion Ellion forward.

The Dalish lacked anything to cover the pair in his arms with, but Leliana was so taken with the little one in her arms, that she did not glance up again until Zevran spoke again.

"So she would not feel self-conscious in such a dazzling outfit, I present, her brothers. Mini Ellion, also known as Schmooples the Second, and Zevran Jr, also known as Boulette."

Identical gasps of delight escaped Leliana and Josephine at the same time. Now beside Cassandra, even the Inquisitor cooed at the cute pair. Both of the male nugs were furless, but none the less, the women were taken by their curiously wiggling noses as they hesitantly scented the air.

Or at least, all the women barring Cassandra.

"I keep telling myself not to because their wild animals, but…" Inquisitor Taryn Lavellan carefully scooped up Boulette "Zevran Jr", cradling the nug in her arms. "This is just too cute."

"That can be arranged," Zevran chirped.

Shaking his head, Ellion allowed Josephine to take away his nug doppleganger. "Look what you've started," he laughed.

Even Cullen could not help but grin at the Warden nug. "You certainly have an eye for detail. He even has the Vassa… Valas…"

"Vallaslin," Taryn corrected with a smile and a laugh.

"Ah, that," Cullen mumbled, flushing with embarrassment as he carefully patted Schmooples the Second.

It was not long however, before Josephine's head snapped up excitedly. "Oh! Here, hold him!" Cullen blinked down bewildered at an equally confused nug as Josephine rushed from the room.

Leliana laughed, "What is Josie up to?"

But none could fathom.

With a sigh, Cassandra rubbed her temple. "I trust we are done with our earlier discussion?"

Glancing up from the mini Warden, Taryn smiled sympathetically at the Seeker. "We are. You can go if you wish, Cass."

With a nod and quick thanks, the woman fled from the overload of nugs and excited gushing over their tiny outfits. Ellion smiled as she noted the woman cast one look back, expression soft. He had a feeling the Seeker held a secret soft spot for her friend's tiny pets, but was loathed to admit it.

Beside Leliana, Ellion stroked the little female's head, mindful of her sensitive ears. "Any ideas for a name? She's fairly young. Zevran said she was the last left of the litter. Mother and the siblings apparently had a bad run in with a coyote."

Sympathetic, Leliana's hold tightened just a little, her tongue clicking sorrowfully. "Poor thing. Hmm, not yet. For such a pretty little lady I will need to think of something special."

Calmer now, as the excitement of the day waned, the fuzzy brown nug churred softly, eyes drooping sleepily. Expression gentler, Leliana rocked the tiny creature. "Do the Elves have a word for nugs?"

"Oinmun." When it came to the Elven language there was sadly a lot that Ellion was unaware of. It was always a painful thought to dwell on.

Quiet, Leliana hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps an Elvish name then. She is from the Dales after all. Boulette is already Orlesian and Schmooples… Well, the Fereldens do enjoy giving their dogs some rather silly names."

"Tell me about it," Ellion muttered.

"What would you call a Lady?"

The blonde's head tipped in thought. "If you mean a noble lady, then I do not know the answer to that. If you mean lady as in gender, then 'Asha' means woman. That is about as close as I can get you. 'Hellathen' is our word for a noble struggle. It is possible that 'Hell' or 'Hella' is meant to be the 'noble' part of the phrase, but I could not tell you. That is a question better asked to a Keeper who would be better versed in Elvhen than I."

But the Bard's nose crinkled. "Hella sounds too…"

"Grim?"

"Exactly. Asha, that is pretty though. What is 'little'?"

Wet nose twitching rapidly, the subject of their discussion curiously extended her head towards the Elf. Indulgent of the curious being, Ellion held his hand up for her to examine. He smiled when small paws gripped his hand, tugging it a little closer to better figure out this stranger.

"'Da'. If you want to call her little woman or little Lady Da'Asha would be closest."

Silver blue eyes glanced up, questioning and hesitant, at her old friend. "Would you be offended if I wanted to name her Da'Asha?"

"Of course not." In affection, his arm banded about her shoulder.

Together the two stood in quiet companionship as the newest addition to Leliana's interesting little family got used to her. Eventually, Leliana asked, both teasing and worried, "About earlier… It's not really nine right? My sources have led me to believe they're only on their fourth guild master since the fifth blight."

The Warden smiled, eyes darting over to his mate. "You would be correct. He likes to make up numbers. To makes him feel less…" The smile slipped and the female rogue held up her hand, silently stopping the other even as his voice trailed away.

"I see and I understand. No need to say more."

It was some time later before Boulette was handed off to Zevran and Schmooples the Second to Ellion. Amused and confused stares followed as Leliana, Zevran, and Ellion passed through the main hall, their mini counterparts in arm. The trio retreated to Leliana's quarters up near the rookery.

It was nightfall before Josephine found them again. Zevran was attempting to teach his tiny doppelganger the finer points of wielding a dagger with one's mouth when Josephine entered, Cassandra on her tail.

"Ah, Cassandra, if you need to discuss something with Leliana I can—"

"No, it's alright. You seem excited. I would not want to make you wait." The rare tease drew a laugh from the ebony haired Antivan.

"Perhaps a little. After seeing Leliana the Second—You did give her a proper name, didn't you?"

"Da'Asha, it means Little Lady," Leliana laughed as Zevran dramatically mimicked pulling a dagger from his stomach.

Said Lady was currently curled on the Spy Master's desk, happily nibbling at a radish.

"Well, I thought to myself, what is such an adorable little Bard and Spy Mistress without…" Gleeful, Josephine pulled her hands out from behind her back, revealing a tiny stuffed raven. "A messenger raven!"

Beside herself with amusement and joy, Leliana accepted the offered stuffed accessory, carefully crochet into the shape of the familiar black birds she so often worked with. "Josie, you didn't!"

"I did," Josephine proudly proclaimed. "The bottom is threaded so you can tie it onto her near the shoulder."

"Why am I not surprised?" Cassandra asked, dryly, but there was no mistaking her smile.

Less reserved, Zevran rocked to his feet, arms thrown wide. "You, my dazzling lady, are brilliant!"

And before she could react, Josephine was swept into the Elf's exuberant hug and only released to be kissed quite soundly on the lips.

"Zevran," Leliana growled, but while quite flustered, Josephine looked rather less than displeased.

Coughing to cover her girlish desire to giggle, Josephine fitfully straightened her skirts. "Yes, well thank you, Ser Arainai."

Disgusted, Cassandra gestured to the audacious Elf. "Warden Commander, I do not understand how you tolerate… _that_."

It was a fight to keep down his smile. More than once over the years, honestly he had lost count of the sheer number, Ellion had been subject to that statement; questions of how he could stand the other Elf's insufferable flirtation. In truth, there was a time when such things had made him uncomfortable, but many faithful years had left him with unwavering trust in his bonded.

Deceptively casual, he shrugged. "What? I see no issue."

Leliana's eyes rolled with her laugh as Josephine returned the kiss with a quick peck on the cheek; as daring a move as she could manage. The rogue grinned quite cheekily.

Content, he threw he retreated to throw his arm around Ellion's shoulder. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

The Warden smiled. No issue at all.

From then on one could never find Leliana without her ever present shadow. While Schmooples the Second and Boulette were content to remain in the Rookery or with their babysitter out in the country, Da'Asha could not be parted from her new mother. During meetings of import the littlest addition could be persuaded to stay in Leliana's room with the help of a radish or two, but otherwise she trotted at the Bard's feet or rode on her shoulder.

The initial whispers of curiosity or even scandal from the more prim nobility eventually waned as the little brown nug became a familiar sight.

Near time for their return to Adamant, Zevran watched with arms crossed and face crinkled in pleasure from the shadows as Bard and Bardlette turned the corner to the War Room and disappeared.

"This was a spectacular success. Do you know what this means?"

Not far away, checking the straps of his gear, Ellion's head snapped up. "No, Zevran."

"It means that it is time to commission something suitable for Pokey."

Exasperated, Ellion bumped his shoulder against Zevran. "When I said no, I meant to not even mention it. And his name isn't Pokey. I'm going to choke Oghren for starting that…"

"Pokey, the halla," Zevran rebutted cheerfully.

"Eiros!"

"That is what I said, Pokey."

It was a lost cause. With a shake of his head, Ellion gave up correcting the poor halla's name. "My mount would gore you before you got within ten feet of him with a costume… And he hates it when you call him that."

But the concerned warning went unheeded. Donning his traveling cloak, Zevran mused aloud, "Now the question is… Warden colors? Or Dalish? Do you think he'd let me tie feathers to his antlers like you put in your hair? Hmm…"

"You're hopeless." With a laugh, Ellion shoved his mate towards the door to begin their long journey home to Amaranthine.

Grinning, Zevran tugged the other into a swift kiss. "You would not have it any other way, amor."

* * *

Right, so… Eiros… Pardon my horrible butchering of Elvhen. So, from what I could tell from Project Elvhen, in order to turn a noun into a verb, you add an 'a' to the end which in turn leads me to believe that doing the opposite, removing the 'a', would turn the verb to a noun.

 **eir** n. snow

 **josa** _vb._ to run, to move swiftly, to flee

Eiros is a combination of 'snow' and 'to run' where I removed the 'A' to turn it from "Snow to run" into "Snow Runner". The 'J' was then removed from snow for aesthetic reasons. From what I read of the "Elvhen Naming Conventions" in Project Elvhen, it is not uncommon for the Elves to twist the spelling around a bit for names to suit their needs or to be more "unique" and such.

So, some liberties were taken with Ellion's halla buddy.

As for Ellion's name, the name was initially created for an elf character of mine in the Tolkien universe.

 **El** n. Star

 **Ion** n. Son

So basically the name translates to "Star Son" literally or more aesthetically, "Son of the Stars". What his name actually means in Elvhen? I cannot really find words that are close enough to his name to twist into it.

Mildly amused that his name is semi close to a combination of Ela and Oin. "Rabbit that has ability". Considering how much of a rage fit he has anytime someone makes the rabbit comparison I almost snorted my coffee at work when I saw that.

Suppose the best I could do would be that it is a bastardization of the name:

 **Ellana** \- One who has the ability to do anything. Masculine variant would be **Ellan** , or Ellanis. A name variation of the verb _Elana_ = to be able, to have the ability to, can, may, to have permission. Ellana is pronounced Ehl - lahnah (/ ɛl - 'lɑːnɑː /)

Ehl-e-ahn is how I pronounce Ellion's name and I am imagining that Ellan is just Ehl-ahn, so I think it's a reasonable enough jump for a name twist. I hope.


End file.
